Scripps ship ends 338,000-mile journey

An “old friend” steamed into San Diego Bay Friday, six years after she was last seen in local waters. The 273-foot research vessel Roger Revelle docked at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s marine facility at Point Loma, wrapping up an usually long journey in which the vessel traveled 338,000 miles while carrying out 86 science cruises in the Pacific, Indian, Southern and Atlantic oceans.

“We schedule our research ships for efficiency and like to keep them out there where the work is,” said Scripps Associate Director Bruce Applegate, who greeted the Revelle’s crew dockside. “Over the past six years, there was an extraordinary amount of work and we were able to put the right people in the right places at the right times.”

Scientists from Scripps and other institutions did everything from study how the air and sea interact in the South Pacific to examine internal waves moving through the Luzon Strait north of the Philippines. At the request of the Navy, which owns the ship, the Revelle also sailed into the path of a typhoon off Taiwan to place sensors in the water. The ship encountered huge seas, but made it through an later picked up the sensors. Research teams also operated an unmanned aircraft from the ship’s deck to take measurements in areas that were too low to be carried out by manned planes.

If you’re on San Diego Bay, make sure to take a look at Revelle. The ship won’t be here long. Scripps will soon put the vessel in dry dock for inspections and repairs in hopes of getting her back to see by next March.